Baking Supplies

Flourless Chocolate Cake

1 · Jan 22, 2014 · 17 Comments

Flourless Chocolate Cake // Last weekend I was put to the test. I needed to create a cake for a last minute get together and didn’t realize until I was in the middle of my baking endeavor that we were OUT of FLOUR!! Who lets themselves run out of flour?? I was a little nervous but remembered that I once tried a flourless cake that was amazing. I decided to test out a version using things I had on hand and boy was it delicious!

Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dutch cocoa
3 eggs

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375˚. Place six ramekins onto a baking tray and lightly mist with cooking spray.

Combine the chocolate chips and butter in a small saucepan. Cook until just melted and remove from the heat.

In a small bowl whisk together the sugar, cocoa, and eggs. You should have a paste like chocolate mass. Fold in the melted chocolate. Divide the batter between your bowls and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Now, you could frost this cake if you felt the need. Since the cake has plenty of chocolate goodness packed inside, I decided to top it with a simple dust of powdered sugar and a few fresh raspberries. Light, riche, and decadent. Those are the top three words I would use to describe this cake.

It is the perfect Valentines Treat. It quickly comes together, tastes amazing, and is sure to impress the ones you love. Why spend tons of time in the kitchen when you can have a simple and impressive dessert ready in minutes?

! If you liked this recipe you should check out these other Valentine Inspired Treats on my site, One Sweet Appetite!

Red Velvet Cake // Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes // Candied Strawberries

Pie Crust the Perfect Canvas // Mini Cherry Pies

91 · Dec 13, 2013 · 28 Comments

This post brought to you by Crisco // It's no secret that I LOVE pie! I love making pie, I love eating pie. As far as I'm concerned pie crust is the perfect canvas to make what ever you want! A few weeks ago I created a post about some of my favorite tips for making Picture Perfect Pies. It all starts with my favorite simple pie crust recipe from Crisco. Once you have that down you can make anything. You can make sweet pies or savory pies. Last night after a day of pie making, I decided to whip up some more crust dough and make some Taco Pies in my new Breville Personal Pie Maker. The family LOVED it!! I will post the recipe soon, promise!

While I was working on this week's pie project, I thought I would make a little video on Instagram on how I make my pie crust.

Kinda fun… thanks to Rhonna Designs and Mindy Gledhill for letting me use some of their talents for the video.

So, I had a thought. Since I just adore pies… Why not make mini pies to give as neighbor gifts for this Christmas season?

Now, these couldn't be any easier… With a great pie crust recipe, some simple store bought filling and the Breville Personal Pie maker. Nothing too crazy here, I gathered my pie crust ingredients…

Click Here for the Recipe

If you still have any questions about making Pie Crust, you can always call the Crisco Pie Hotline 1-877-FOR PIE TIPS (877-367-7438) for all kinds of around the clock PIE help this holiday season!

Next, I took some store bought cherry pie filling and supplemented it with some frozen sweet black cherries. The color contrast makes the filling really pretty, plus I LOVE black cherries. I used one 12 oz. bag of frozen cherries to 2 cans of cherry pie filling.

Then, I rolled out my pie crust and cut it using the special cutter from Breville machine, here is a quick video on how I did that as well.

Didn't they turn out CUTE?! They fit right inside those clear cellophane bags that you can find any where these days. Then I added some holiday greenery to make it look festive.

These cute little mini pies are just so fun and so easy to make…

The are just scrumptious!! Crisco has made pie making so easy these days.

They have a Crisco Picture Perfect Pie Pinterest board that has all kinds of fabulous recipes.
The Crisco Kitchen has teamed up with Michele Stuart owner of Michele's pies in Connecticut, she is over at Crisco's site sharing all kinds of fun pie tips and ideas.
Crisco is hosting a fun Rate & Review contest for a chance to win a Michele Stuart pie prize pack. Visit the Rate & Review site to rate your favorite pie for a chance to win!

Crisco is giving away a fabulous Perfect Pie Prize Pack to one of you!! Here is what you will win…

A Prize Pack valued at $200!! Follow the directions in the Rafflecopter box below to enter. This giveaway is open to those with a shipping address within the United States and will be open from November 27-January 2 with the winner announced on January 3rd.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Crisco. I did receive payment for development of this post.

Peppermint Drop Cookies // Cookie Swap Recipe

21 · Dec 5, 2013 · 14 Comments

Peppermint Drop Cookie Recipe // The season is upon us… Holiday baking and general goodie making. I grew up with a Mom who created all kinds of goodies each year to share with friends and neighbors. This year I decided to experiment with a "cookie" or a meringue cookie really… to come up with a cute take on those traditional peppermint candies.

Meringue cookies are all over the patisseries in Paris in varies shapes and flavors. They are sooooo easy to make and are a fun unique treat that you can WOW your friends with. They are made just like a meringue for a pie, but you pipe them onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them for quite a bit longer. They turn into these cute, crunchy, yet soft in the middle sweet treats. When you add a little red food coloring and some peppermint extract they get even better and are like peppermint candies, but WAY better!

Peppermint Drop Cookie Recipe

This recipe has been adapted from Martha Stewart's Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Filling Recipe // It will yield about 30 two inch size meringue cookies.

3 egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

red gel food coloring

Instructions

In a heat safe mixing bowl, place the egg whites and sugar. Place over a medium sauce pan filled half way with water at a low simmer on the stove. Slowly whisk the egg whites and sugar until the sugar has melted. The best way to test that is using your CLEAN fingers. Just pinch a bit of the mixture and see if you still feel the grit of the sugar. As soon as the grit is gone, this usually take a few minutes, the whites are then ready to whip into a meringue.

Place mixing bowl in mixer and with the whisk attachment, whisk on high until the egg whites and sugar form stiff peaks. Once you have stiff peaks, add the peppermint extract and whisk until fully combined.

Place a large star tip in a large pastry bag. Then using a clean brush or tip of a butter knife, draw some stripes onto the inside of the pastry bag with the red gel food coloring.

It doesn't need to be pretty, or exact… just four or five lines to add the red stripes to the peppermint drops.

Next, pipe the meringue onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Make the cookies about two inches in diameter. A quick note… Due to the nature of these cookies you may want to use masking tape to tape down the parchment paper on the baking sheet. That way you won't have parchment paper floating around wreaking havoc on your peppermint drop cookies. Make nice little drops with the pastry bag and then carefully pull up to create the nice peak at the top.

Place in a 175˚ oven for 3 hours. I also place a wooden spoon in between the oven door and the oven so that any steam that is created can escape. Once the cookies are hard, remove them from the oven and let cool.

These little meringues turn into these bite size peppermint treats that just melt in your mouth. They are a perfect addition to a goodie plate, because they add DRAMA. The nice thing is they can be made ahead of time and stored in an air tight container for a couple of weeks. You can even create a fun little goodie bag just filled with these little treats. Either way, they would be a great addition to your holiday treat list!

Santa will even love them on his goodie plate. They are a nice change of pace to your regular cookie!

I am participating in a fun cookie swap this week with a group of fabulous bloggers!!

You can head over and check out their fun recipes…

Tracie from Cleverly Inspired made some rustic Gingerbread Biscotti…

Chelsea from Two Twenty One made another peppermint treat… Peppermint Chocolate Cookies.

Tomorrow, Carmel from Our Fifth House will have another cookie to share with you guys! Make sure to head over and see what she's created.

Happy Holidays!

Three Tips for Picture Perfect Pie Crust

15 · Nov 27, 2013 · 109 Comments

This post brought to you by Crisco // When I was about 14 years old, I had a wise woman in my life, her name was Mrs. Robinson, who gave me some great advice… When in the kitchen, learn how to make one thing REALLY well. If you love chocolate cake, learn how to make the best chocolate cake. If you love pies, learn how to make the best pie out there. She said that if you have one really good dessert recipe, you could catch any guy you want. LOL!! Well, I decided that I wanted to make the perfect pie. To be more specific, I wanted to learn how to make the perfect pie crust. That way I could have several more options when it came to my man catching baking skills!

I have to say, I got pretty good at it. I was always called on to make the pies in my house during the holidays and after many attempts after awhile, they turned out nice and flaky every time. Then I met my so-to-be husband and boy was she right… He loved pies. All kinds of pies… Blueberry, Peach, Cherry & Apple. I was golden… Thank you Mrs. Robinson!!

Recently, I was asked by the lovely folks at Crisco to become a Crisco Pie Partner and I was thrilled. I'm excited for two reasons… I'm excited to share some of my hard earned pie tips and tricks with you, and that I could also honor my friend Mrs. Robinson, who has since passed on by sharing her sweet advice with all of you. So here you have it… Some tricks to making Picture Perfect Pie Crust EVERY TIME thanks to Mrs. Robinson.

With the holidays here, we are all gearing up to do all kinds of holiday baking and pies are always on the list. However, many of us have taken to using store bought frozen pie crust and my friends… it's just not the same. We have been tricked into thinking that pie crust is hard to make and it's not. It's really rather easy if you follow a few basic principles. Here are my tried and true pie crust secrets…

Tip #1 // Selecting the Right Ingredients

For years the debate with pie crust has been, which fat is better… Butter, Crisco or Lard? After MANY years of making pies and trying each option myself, I hands down select Crisco shortening every time. It just seems to make the lightest, flakiest crust each time. Sometimes I will do half butter, half Crisco if I'm wanting that buttery flavor but I always use Crisco or even the butter flavored Baking Sticks. The recipe I'm using today is your simple basic pie crust using just flour, salt, Crisco and water…

It's super simple click HERE to visit the recipe page. Can I just take a minute and thank Crisco for coming up with the Baking Sticks… I LOVE them!! No mess, no fuss and the measuring is done for you. PERFECT!!

Tip #2 // Cold Ingredients are your Friend

The absolute key to making good crust is to use COLD ingredients. I place my Crisco Baking Sticks in the freezer for a few hours before hand and I use ice cold water when mixing the crust. I also try not to touch the dough too much with my warm hands. That will also cause the dough to warm up and you don't want that.

The reason why you want things to stay cold is… You want your Crisco to stay solid and in small little pieces within the crust. When those little nuggets are hit by the heat in the oven that is what makes those flaky little pockets in the crust that we love so much. Without those little gems, your crust will turn out solid and tough and not a whole lot of fun to eat.

To start, I place my flour and salt in a large bowl. Then I remove the Crisco from the freezer and cut it into small pieces…

Sometimes, I even stick the Crisco back in the freezer for a few minutes after I have cut it, in order for it to chill again. Then I place my shortening into the bowl with my flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter I cut the Crisco into the flour…

Again, you want to make sure to leave your shortening in small little pea size pieces so don't over work.

Tip #3 // The Key is a Light Hand

When it comes to working with this kind of dough. a light hand is key. Don't over mix the Crisco into the flour. Next, you will lightly fold in the cold ice water into the dough. I use a rubber spatula at this stage and gently fold in the water starting with one tablespoon and slowly mixing it just until the dough starts to come together. Again… light hand here. The more you mix the tougher the dough will be.

For this crust, the recipe calls for 3-6 tablespoons of water. I ended up using 4 but, that will depend on your environment where you are baking. You may need more, you may need less. Then I pour the loose dough out onto a clean board and this is what it should look like…

Now, this is the one step where I will quickly use my hands. I carefully pull the dough together and form it into a disk like so…

Then I wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Once it has chilled again, than I am ready to roll it out. On a clean floured surface I roll out my dough. I carefully turn the dough after a few passes with the rolling pin, to ensure that the dough doesn't stick to the board. You may even need to turn it and flour your surface a few times. But, be careful not to over flour.

Then using your rolling pin as a handy tool… roll the dough onto your pie plate…

I trim my edges a bit and then crimp my edges using my two finger pinching method…

Now, you have the perfect canvas for any pie that you can dream up…

Not sure what to make? Crisco has you covered! Here are some fabulous resources for creating the perfect pie…

You can call the Crisco Pie Hotline 1-877-FOR PIE TIPS (877-367-7438) for all kinds of around the clock PIE help this holiday season!
Crisco has a Picture Perfect Pie Pinterest board that has all kinds of fabulous recipes.
The Crisco Kitchen has teamed up with Michele Stuart owner of Michele's pies in Connecticut, she is over at Crisco's site sharing all kinds of fun pie tips and ideas.
Crisco is hosting a fun Rate & Review contest for a chance to win a Michele Stuart pie prize pack. Visit the Rate & Review site to rate your favorite pie for a chance to win!

I hope Crisco and I have inspired you to pass on the freezer pie crust and try your hand in a truly homemade pie. I promise, if you follow these tips you will blow your family away with your scrumptious pies this year! In order to do just that… Crisco is giving away a fabulous Perfect Pie Prize Pack to one of you!! Here is what you will win…